New Year's Tribute

For Abraham and the expanse of stars.

For that pinnacle moment when he believed God and was credited with righteousness.

For Sarah, a bitter, barren woman whose laughter was scoffing.

For Hagar, the human attempt to make God’s promise happen.

For Isaac, whose name meant laughter, the fulfillment of the first promise.

For Abraham’s faith in the sacrifice of his one and only son.

For God’s protection of his plan through a substitute sacrifice.

For the second-born: Jacob, who stole Esau’s blessing, and Perez, the offspring of incest.

For the barren woman in a familial culture: Sarah, Rachel, and Elizabeth.

For Bilhah, abused by Rachel’s manipulation and scorned upon giving Jacob sons.

For Leah, the ugly older sister and neglected wife.

For God’s faithfulness in giving her six sons, the triumph of a woman.

For the fourth son, Judah, and his descendants.

For the prostitute Rahab, who believed in the God of Jacob and was spared destruction, and for her son Boaz.  

For Ruth, a widowed Moabitess who left her people and pursued the kinsman redeemer.

For Obed, their son, the father of Jesse, the father of David.

For that youngest, most diminutive shepherd-boy, anointed by God as king.

For Solomon, David’s son, the product of adultery and murder.

For the series of Israel’s kings who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

For the four hundred years of silence between the last prophet and a Wildman who ate locusts and honey.

For the faith of a young virgin and the courage of her betrothed carpenter.

For the birth of an infant in an obscure stable, the fulfillment of God’s first promise.

For the 42 generations of willfulness and ineptitude and God’s tremendous orchestration over 4,000 years to redeem his fallen creation.

For the one man, the Firstborn, the Freeborn, the King, the Kinsman Redeemer, and the Substitute Sacrifice.

For the girl who is also willful and inept.

For the God who uses the ordinary and imperfect.

For her bitterness of years past and scoffing of years to come.

For God’s forgiveness that purges bitterness and His faithfulness that rebukes scoffing.

For her human attempt to fulfill His promise of love, and the hearts she bowled over to get there.

For His unceasing pursuit of her heart.

For her barren idols of appearance, attention, and affirmation.

For His breaking down of her gods.

For her ungenerous heart and controlling hands.  

For the God who provides for a sparrow.  

For her selfish manipulation of others and her scathing words, for her cowardice and her taking of the wide road.

For His unconditional grace and sanctifying work.

For His faithful orchestration over twenty years.

For the year 2013. For the year 2014.

For the number of years, of which only He knows the exact number, until Christ returns to finish history.